E.V.I.E.: 13 Slayers, 13 Missions

by Lexi C. Foss

  Jasper didn’t speak, but I saw the warning in his eyes. He did trust Beckett, but only to a point. We followed him to a small building which had probably one served as a stable. Inside, we found an opulent guest house.

  “This is nice,” I commented.

  “It’s mine. Father and mother keep the main house filled with their wretched friends. This is my escape,” Beckett explained.

  “Security system?” Jasper asked.

  “If you want to know if it’s bugged, the answer is no. I have a team that sweeps it weekly. They checked it this afternoon. Have you told her what we are?” Beckett asked.

  I looked to Jasper for an answer. “I intended to, but we were interrupted.”

  I backed away from them both. “What are you?”

  Beckett quirked a smile as Jasper held his hands up in surrender. I cocked my head and scowled at him. Becket began to unbutton his red silk shirt. He pulled it open to reveal a Celtic cross tattooed on his chest. It astonished me. A religious symbol inked into a vampire’s skin. Jasper looked at the ground as he too opened his shirt to reveal the same mark.

  “Fraternitas, quae vicit crucis,” Beckett said. I knew some Latin, but not enough to translate.

  “Fellowship of the crucible. There are a few of our kind who carry the burden of policing our own kind. When a vampire doesn’t follow our laws and the sleeps, we eliminate him,” Jasper said.

  “Or her,” Beckett added to be completely inclusive.

  “Doesn’t that hurt?” I asked.

  “You get used to it,” Jasper said.

  “Speak for yourself. This thing hurts. Maybe you could kiss it and make me feel better,” Beckett said. Jasper backslapped him in the abs. “Oof!”

  “So, that’s why you help E.V.I.E. They know about you,” I surmised.

  “Yes, but we generally don’t know each other. It’s just a coincidence that Beckett and I discovered each other,” Jasper said.

  I lifted an eyebrow. “Just a coincidence?”

  “Well, I tried seducing him, and it didn’t work. I’d removed my shirt in the process. I eventually got what I wanted.” Beckett’s grin made Jasper groan.

  “So, we are working together to find out who is doing this,” Jasper added.

  Beckett took a seat on one of the couches leaving his shirt hanging open while Jasper buttoned his. Jasper sat down next to him. Beckett started to move closer and Jasper held up his hand.

  “No, we have a job to do. Tell us what you know,” Jasper demanded.

  “I’ve searched the grounds here. I haven’t been able to find any evidence that anyone in my family is taking the humans for blood slaves, but I know it has to be my father. After the last sleep, he awoke to find his power diminished. We aren’t sure why. I guess that there is only so much our bodies can take over time. He’s been around a lot longer than most of the vamps in the world. Lately, he has seemed revived. He must be feeding. It’s the only explanation,” Beckett said. I paced the floor as four vampire eyes watched me. “Damn, she looks hot tonight.”

  “Focus, horny bastard,” Jasper scolded Beckett.

  “It’s never the obvious explanation,” I said. The men watched me as I walked back and forth across the room. “What about Chelsea?”

  “My sister? The only things she cares about are her designer clothes and her rich friends,” Beckett said.

  I looked at Jasper, and he nodded. “Sounds like a perfect front.”

  “Does she have her own place?” I asked.

  “Yeah, there’s another converted house on the property,” Beckett said. “But I’ve got to get back to this party. You guys should make an appearance, too. Especially you.” He nudged Jasper.

  I could see that Jasper who had acted in my benefit was still wrestling with his feelings about what had occurred between Beckett and him.

  “He’s right. They need someone to ridicule,” Jasper smirked.

  “Well, they can ridicule us both. We look fabulous and they can back the fuck off,” I said.

  “I agree. I’d fuck you both right now,” Beckett said.

  “Beck!” Jasper and I shouted at him. He held up his hands in surrender, but it made me smile. Jasper shook his head, but I saw the smile flirting around the edges of his mouth.

  “Let’s do this,” I said.

  Beckett took a side door into the house while Jasper and I approached the front door as we had when we arrived. He puffed up his chest as we walked through the double front doors into the vestibule of the building. We were greeted by a middle-aged couple. I had seen pictures of Beckett’s parents, but nothing could prepare me for the actual beauty of the couple. The Stuarts wore matching black and lace masks which coordinated with her mostly lace dress with only a few private areas covered while he wore a sleek black tuxedo with a black ascot.

  A man next to them announced us as we approached.

  “Baron Jasper Eden and Miss Samarie Bashir, daughter of the Egyptian ambassador.”

  “Oh, my! Child, you have out-done yourself. You are stunning in this golden dress,” the duchess commented while running her fingers through the fabric of the my skirt.

  “Thank you, your Grace.”

  “Welcome to the ball. Charity donations are being taken in the red room. Please see the attendant there to make your monetary pledge or present your cheque,” the duke said.

  “Yes, of course,” Jasper replied. I hadn’t considered bringing any money. I hoped that Jasper had covered that aspect of our attendance.

  We walked past the hosts as they turned their attentions to someone else. We stepped into the next grand room which had to be the red room. The red damask wallpaper screamed blood and the red velvet furnishings with golden accents were over the top, but I didn’t expect anything less from one of the wealthiest families in England.

  “Oh, my goddess! You look divine,” Chelsea said, running up to me and linking arms as if we were old pals. She leaned into my ear. “Too bad you are here with him.”

  “I can hear you, Miss Stuart,” Jasper said with a teasing tone. I knew now why he hated being around these people. They treated him as if he didn’t matter. Which really made no sense as to why they paid more attention to me than him.

  Chelsea wore a long velvet crimson dress with golden accents as if she’d tried to match the room. Her golden mask covered most of her face, except for her deeply painted red lips.

  “Baron Eden, I meant no harm,” she claimed with a hand across her breasts which were bubbling out of the top of her dress. Jasper kept his eyes locked on hers, and she quickly turned away.

  “If you would excuse us, we are going to make our donation to the cause,” Jasper said, tugging me away from the vampire beauty. He lowered his voice. “You are right. It’s her.”

  “How do you know?” I asked.

  “I smell fresh blood on her,” he said.

  “Is than unusual for a vampire? I mean, you drink blood, right?” I asked.

  He tugged me to the side in a small alcove just outside of the room. “I do. But I prefer the willing living donations.” He brushed his thumb over my neck sending chills down my body. “But when that is unavailable, I resort to bagged blood. It is not appetizing, but necessary for survival.”

  “How do you get them?” I asked.

  “That’s a story for another day. We need to find Beck and get access to her house.” He looked up and around us anxiously. People walked past us, but only cut their eyes to what appeared to be two lovers in an intimate moment.

  “And our charitable donation?” I asked.

  He retrieved a bundle of high marked bank notes in denominations not normally carried for exchange. My eyes widened at the wad of money.

  “I may be just a Baron, but I do have money,” he remarked.

  I took his arm and we walked back into the red room where a couple of men stood next to a large clear urn filled with cheques and bank notes. The men moved away when Jasper approached and dropped the bundle into the jar. It quickly sank
to the bottom with a thud, drawing attention from those around the room. Jasper didn’t look at them but kept his eyes on me while guiding me out of the room.

  “We need to find Beckett,” I said.

  “He wasn’t in there.” We walked back toward the vestibule but didn’t see him within the crowd. We navigated through the masked groups of people into each room. One held a large buffet of amuse bouche- type items along with tiny bite- sized treats.

  The next room opened up to a larger open room with a dance floor where couples danced and swirled while others gathered along the outsides chatting about frivolous things or gossiping about people in the room.

  Jasper and I slowly made our way through the crowd and slipped into a side hallway where servants hurried carrying trays of drinks and appetizers.

  “Excuse me,” Jasper said to one young lady. When her eyes met his, she froze in place and her pupils dilated. He was enthralling her. I squeezed his arm in disapproval, but he ignored me.

  “Yes, Sir. How may I help you?” she asked.

  “Miss Chelsea Stuart told us that we could use her quarters to have a little privacy, if you know what I mean.” She blushed and nodded. “Could you tell me the quickest way to get there?”

  “Yes, of course. If you go out that door just there, follow the stone walk toward the large house just to the east of the property. That is Miss Stuart’s home,” she said.

  Jasper lifted her hand and kissed it. She giggled and looked away. “Alright. You run along and do your work. Tell no one that you spoke to me.”

  “Yes, Sir,” she replied, then hurried away.

  “Jasper,” I hissed.

  “I didn’t hurt her. I worry that Beckett might be in trouble. We’ve got to do this without him,” he said.

  We followed the woman’s instructions. We went out the door and followed the stone walk toward the large cottage just to the east of the main house. There were no lights on inside, and it didn’t seem like there was anyone at home.

  Jasper hesitated as we approached the house. “Blood. Lots of it.”

  “Shit. We are too late,” I growled. I slammed my staff on the ground. A pointed end ejected out of both the bottom and top of the staff. The golden ankh fell to the ground. “Let’s get in there.”

  Jasper pulled a gun out of his inner jacket. I cocked my head. Bullets would slow down a vamp but not kill them. “A perk of the Fraternity. We’ve experimented with many forms of killing our kind. It’s a silver- jacketed wooden bullet. It blooms open on impact and pops.”

  “Dusted,” I said with a hint of excitement in my voice. I loved the sound of a vamp meeting its dust.

  “If you are a good girl, maybe I’ll give you some,” he said.

  “Give me some what?” I asked to clarify.

  “Bullets, of course.”

  “You said you’d give me the world, and there wasn’t any mention of terms like being good.”

  “I’d prefer to bed a dirty bitch, but that’s entirely up to you.”

  Hot damn. This man had flipped a switch on me, and I fucking loved it. We slowly approached the house and peered into the windows. Nothing moved inside. We made our way around the back of the home where we found another door. Jasper forced it open, and I followed him inside. The pungent smell of fresh blood permeated the entire house. We walked slowly through the modernized kitchen to a living area. A set of stairs went upward, but Jasper shook his head. We made our way to the side of the stairs where Jasper stopped and handed me his gun. Claws extended from his fingers and I winced. I knew some vampires had monstrous mutations, but I’d never seen Jasper’s.

  His claws dug into a gap in the wall beneath the stairs. It opened up to reveal another set of steps leading downward into darkness. The coppery stench of blood overwhelmed my senses. Jasper’s fangs popped out, and he turned his head from me. I jerked his face back to look me in the eye.

  “I know what you are.”

  “I can control it. The smell is just so strong,” he moaned.

  “I can go down there and you keep…”

  “Fuck that,” he said interrupting me, and began to descend the stairs. I followed him down into a pit of horror that I had never seen in all of my hunting days.

  9

  The Truth

  JASPER

  The large underground chamber spread thirty feet in front of us. Along the walls, people – humans – were strapped to metal beds that were upright. Each one had cuts on their legs and feet where the blood would drain into a bin below the bed. They were covered in stitched wounds where they had been bled many times over and over again. None of them were conscious.

  “My god,” I mumbled.

  “I’ve never seen anything like this,” Sam said. The horror in her voice sank into my bones. “What if Beckett is part of this?”

  I took a deep breath. The Fraternity had never had to kill one of its own, and I hoped that it stayed that way. I was becoming fond of the playboy horndog.

  “What do we do?” I asked Sam.

  “I can call in reinforcements from E.V.I.E. to remove them. A clean-up crew. They will save the ones that they can. The long-term effects of something like this will be hard to overcome, but we have the resources to rehabilitate them.”

  Each victim had a heart monitor and a machine that seemed to weigh the blood in the bin. Once the blood reached a certain level a light would come on indicating that that one had reached a critical limit. It blew my mind that no one was here monitoring them. Of course, if Chelsea was doing this, she had to be at the main house.

  A shuffling noise came from the darkness on the other end of the room. I stepped back toward Samarie and leveled my gun at the sound of the movement. She readied her staff, and we waited.

  His ankles were tied, his hands were secured behind his back, and an actual ball gag was strapped to his face.

  “Beckett!” Sam exclaimed, rushing toward him.

  “Sam!” I called out to her. She didn’t stop until she reached him. She popped out the ball gag.

  “You know under other circumstances I think I’d love the idea of you gagging me,” he smirked.

  “You idiot. What happened?” she asked.

  I remained on my feet with my gun drawn. He looked at me, then back to her. She’d laid down her weapon to release his bonds.

  “My sister and a couple of goons did this to me. I don’t know where they went,” he said, rubbing his wrists. The red marks quickly went away as his body healed itself. “Jasper, you keep pointing that gun at me like I had something to do with this.”

  “Did you?” I asked.

  Beckett shook his head, but I watched as Sam inched away from him.

  “You know, all my life, my family has looked down on me. Treated me worse that what they treat you. When I came across the two of you, I thought maybe I’d found some true friends. I guess I was wrong,” he said in a huff. He stood up, brushing dust from his pants. He walked past me without looking into my eyes.

  “Beck, wait,” Sam called out to him.

  He froze and lowered his head.

  “He didn’t deny it, Sam,” I pointed out.

  “I know,” she hissed at me. She left her stick on the ground and walked to him. I kept my gun trained on him. As she moved to his front, leaving his back open to me for a good shot, I watched her lift his head to look her in the eye. “You know my past. I don’t know who told you, but you know.”

  “Vega was a friend of my sisters,” he said.

  “Oh,” Sam said.

  “He deserved to die for what he did. I hated him. I became obsessed trying to find the slayer who had killed him. When I discovered your picture, I was blown away. You are amazing. I knew I didn’t have a chance, so I began to follow Eden around so that I could see you.”

  “You stalked her?” I growled.

  “I stalked you both. I admit that my obsession grew for both of you.”

  “I need you to say it, Beckett,” Sam said to him.

  “I wou
ld never do something like this because it would demolish any chance that I had of being with you. With both of you. I didn’t do this. Chelsea is doing it. And I think she’s doing it for my whole family,” he confessed.

  “How do you know?” I asked.

  “The blood has been fresher at the house in the last six months. I should have questioned it. It was my duty to question it. But I didn’t. I kept going to the raves hoping that I could find who was doing it to prove that it wasn’t my family. But after talking to you tonight, I made my way here to find out for sure. To accept the truth that I already knew.” He turned and faced me, then fell to his knees. He ripped open his shirt to reveal the cross over his heart. “I’m just as guilty. Do your duty, Eden.”

  My heart suddenly shattered for the broken man kneeling before me. He was offering himself to me again, and I didn’t have it in me to do what he asked. Instead, I tucked my gun away. Leaning down over him, I placed a soft kiss on his lips.

  “I won’t kill you, but you will help us fix this,” I said. He nodded as a tear rolled down his cheek.

  “Well, isn’t that sweet. I always took you for a homo,” Chelsea said from the stairs. Three large men flanked her. Sam rose quickly and ran for her stick as I jerked Beckett of the ground while grabbing my gun.

  The men with Chelsea were huge bodybuilder types whose muscles pressed against their designer suits. I’d seen them before in the red room of the house with donation jar.

  “Oh and thank you for your generous donation to help continue our project. The peerage have been depraved of what we deserve for so many ages. We will no longer take secondhand blood or wait until some fool offers themselves to us. This new project allows me to keep donors alive and constantly producing blood. There are many involved in the operation from doctors to scientists. It costs a lot of money, but with the help of the people at the main house, our venture will become the norm for all of the vampiric gentry.”

  I wondered how many of them knew where the blood was coming from or how many had partaken in this endeavor. It would take more than a couple of the Fraternity and one E.V.I.E. slayer to figure it out. But for now, it was time to cut the head off the beast.